Many attempts have previously been made to streamline the process of scheduling appointments for patients in the healthcare industry. From a healthcare organization's point of view the most efficient method is to let patients schedule appointments themselves. However, until the advent of the Internet, this solution was not feasible. Now, the Internet has provided patients with direct access to an organization through the web, thereby opening up the possibility of self-scheduling. Nevertheless, self-scheduling over the Internet presents unique and interesting problems. For example, there are always security issues when dealing with medical information on the Internet. Also, if the system is not implemented properly, patients could abuse the system. Furthermore, Healthcare providers, such as doctors, nurses, and surgeons often have concerns that they are losing control of their daily schedules if they allow patients to schedule their own appointments.
The existing scheduling solutions are based on messaging or very restricted access. These solutions allow patients to enter some limited information concerning an appointment. Some examples are: (1) which provider the patient wants to see, (2) the day and time the patient wants to be seen, (3) some of the patient's insurance information, and (4) a few other types of information relevant to scheduling.
After requests were submitted in the previous systems, workers at the clinics were then required to review each of the requests and contact every patient individually to inform him or her whether or not the request was granted. While this process is somewhat convenient for the patients, it does not automatically schedule appointments or immediately enter the data into the organization's system. Rather, it relies on human intervention to evaluate the requests and contact the patients when the decision to schedule the appointment has been made.
There is a demonstrated need for healthcare organizations to allow the full scheduling of appointments over the Internet in an automated process that gives patients immediate results and eliminates the need for employees of the facility to review each request for an appointment. None of the previous systems satisfied this need.